Remember Aung San Suu Kyi? She
was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Those were the days when she was an oppressed
citizen of Burma. Today she is a lawmaker, the leader of the opposition in
Burma. Yet the country has been witness to a systematic genocide of the
Rohingya by its ruling elite and she has remained silent, totally silent,
opting to cling on to her newfound power rather than speak out for the
oppressed.
What could change a person so? In
answer, a quote of Suu Kyi
herself comes to mind, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing
power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts
those who are subject to it.”
Suu Kyi represents a brand of
politicians who are abundant in supply, their demand stemming from their
flexibility in compromising the most basic of their beliefs for the sake of
that Holy Grail called power. One such person is Hasanul Haq Inu, Minister of
Information; Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Son of Late AHM
Qamrul Haq, who retired as General Manager of Karnaphuli Paper Mills, Inu comes
across as the typical silver spooned toddler. Before I delve further, it is of
importance that we keep in mind that Inu did not have ideals to start with. His
history bears witness.
The badder the better,
Inu, on his profile on the ministry of information website,
gives us censored bits and pieces of his life. He started with the Chatra
League in 1968. To step up towatds a more intense role, he joined the rage of
the time, ‘Shwadin Bangla
Biplobi Parishad’ (Bangladesh Liberation Front) in 1969. It is mentionable that Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad, was secretly organised
for the independence of Bangladesh in 1962. Later it formed a political wing,
Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF), which was renamed ‘Mujib Bahini’ during the
9-month Liberation War. His role in the Liberation war seems to be warped up.
After a series of armed marches (as claimed by his website), he suddenly gets
relocated to India, playing a very 'major role' in the Liberation War (as an
instructor at a camp in India). It is clear however, that the man did not fight
or kill one Pak soldier in the entire course of the war. His war tales subside
to take him to join the opposition left party Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal (JASOD),
apparently in a fallout with the ruling Awami League just five months after
Bangabandhu 'entrusted' him with a job to create a new party (Jatiyo Krishak
League). How important he was at the time, we do not really know. Trumping up
his version of events, he places himself as the founder of the Gono Bahini
after the banning of all political parties in 1974 by founding father of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman(the emergence of the BAKSAL).
Some
missing truths,
The
Gono Bahini (People's Army) started as a 'noble' endeavor to resist the
BAKSHAL. In reality, it was party to an ugly chapter in Bangladeshi politics.
An offshoot of the JASOD, it is rarely talked about nowadays due to obvious
reasons I shall talk about later. Here is a description I find quite informative, "Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal,
formidable enemy of the Awami League, was getting enough clout in educational
institutions across the nation. In the village level its underground fronts,
namely, Gono Bahini and Bangladesher Communist League were gathering experience
in killing Awami Leaguers and confronting Rakkhi Bahini. Although JSD was
proponent of “Scientific socialism”whatever it means, it was not thrilled to
see a left wing metamorphosis of Awami League. This party was ready to push the
country to a bloody civil war with the clear ambition of eliminating Awami
League from the political power." A BAKSAL supportive blog has
this to say about the Gono Bahini, "Most of the cadres of the Islamic
parties went underground. At the same time, the Maoists/communists formed
underground political parties with armed cadres to carry on armed revolution
inside our motherland. In the aftermath of the independence of Bangladesh, all
these underground extremists created a terrible condition in the newly born
republic. Even the ultra-leftists formed political parties and their armed
wings (such as Gonobahini) to implement “scientific socialism,” a term not
quite clear even to the proponents."
The
Gono Bahini was led by Colonel Taher and his deputy was Hasanul Haque Inu. The
feud between the Rakhi Bahini
(paramilitary force sanctioned by the state) and the Gono Bahini along with a
group of other armed groups led to thousands of deaths. I shall not go into
details, but what I intend to say is that the Gono Bahini was not an angel as Inu
claims it to be. A recent article by
Sangram details how Gono Bahini was involved in acts of massacre of civilians
and terrorist acts against the state.
A
murky history,
The
same article refers to an article by Amader Shomoy (5 November, 2009) which
details how Col. Taher (tugging behind him Inu), planned to ultimately kill
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and perform a coup; only they were beaten to it by a
group of military officers. The duo had contact with the army officers, met
army officers at the Betar Bhobon after the coup, and even met President
Khandakar Moshtaq (president immediately after the coup) at the Bangabhaban for
at least 3 days in order to influence the chain of events. Inu, of course was
complicit in all of this.
Stooge
and Slime ball,
Inu,
after his new job as Minister at the Ministry of Information, his first chance
at a real government post, has shown his true colours. The latest in this
facade of upholding freedom and ideals of democracy in Bangladesh are his
scathing comments against editors of the country’s 15 daily newspapers, who on
Saturday demanded the
government allow the recently closed private television channels Diganta TV and
Islamic Television to go on air again and the release of Amardesh acting editor
Mahmudur Rahman. In a scathing attack, he
said such appeal was ‘not in the best interest of the media’. An Islamophobic
atheist all his life, it was rather heart warming indeed to hear him spewing
farcical statements saying that Mahmudur Rahman had not been arrested for his
writings against Hasina or the state, but for his 'hurting religious
sentiments' and 'hacking' of the ICT conversations.
Smashing
the facade,
A Daily
Star editorial was
cuttingly indignant in its reply, saying that "It appears that 15
editors of, almost all leading papers of the country, collectively do not know
“facts” which only the information minister knows." The facts it raised
stroked the problems to their core. I can only do justice by reposting it here.
"The fact Mr. Minister is that Amar Desh is closed without being banned.
The fact is that Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Amar Desh, has been in jail for the
last one month with dozens of charges against him with none having been proved
in the court law. The fact is that he has been taken on several days’ remand
during which, his family has alleged, that he was tortured.Do you remember Mr.
Minister the days when it was customary to assume someone innocent before
proven guilty in court? The fact the honourable minister is that Amar Desh
printing press is under lock and key on the excuse that the premise in being
investigated. How long does it take to do so? Well it can take a few hours or
few years as the government wants and we know what it wishes. The fact is that
the government is yet to give reasons why the two TV channels are being kept
closed?These are the facts protesting which the 15 editors have given a
statement."
A New Age editorial was more
pragmatic in its approach when it put forward this simple observation in
refuting the comments of Inu when its said that his comments were "a
reconfirmation of the incumbents’ increasing intolerance with divergent opinion
— be it in the political arena or in society at large." On the issues at
hand, the editorial scathingly retorted, "Indeed, the Amar Desh acting
editor is guilty of his paper’s publication of a misleading photograph;
however, he did subsequently apologise for the mistake. No one should presume
that a journalist or a media outlet is infallible because they are not. What
deserves recognition and even appreciation is when a journalist or a media
outlet regrets the mistake and apologise, both of which Amar Desh and its
acting editor did. As for the closure of Diganta TV and Islamic TV, the
government has clearly acted arbitrarily and now seems to be at pains to
justify its actions. It is worth noting that these two television channels
broadcast live the predawn joint operation by the police, the Rapid Action
Battalion and the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh at Motijheel on May 6,
just as many other electronic media outlets did. However, these other
television channels managed to evade the government’s wrath, apparently because
of their close links with the ruling Awami League." A few words were
enough to decimate the government's attitude towards the media,
"Regrettably, such highhandedness is neither isolated nor unprecedented
but has, in fact, characterised the tenure of the AL-led government since its
assumption of office in January 2009."
The solution ?
Trust New Age to give a fitting
one. "Hence, rights-conscious and democratically-oriented sections of
society need to raise their voice in unison against the abuse of people’s
mandate to govern the country by the incumbents."
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